Higher Education Centers Research Articles

Critical factors of pedagogical management that influence the evasion in higher education distance learning courses: a case study

Abstract: Society is currently experiencing scientific, technical and social progress, requiring constant renewal with higher quality dedicated to higher education. Distance education (EAD) allows the raise of new learning forms. EAD uses new technologies and the internet to raise the population education level, creating a higher professional qualification and providing training for specialists in several areas of knowledge. Despite the existing facilities and technologies, EAD has evasion rates that are around twenty-five percent. The question that raises from this data is; what are the critical factors associated to pedagogical management that led to this high evasion rate? The objective of the research was to determine the critical factors of pedagogical management, which have an impact on the evasion in undergraduate courses in the EAD. The research place was a higher education center in the north of Santa Catarina state. The identification of the critical factors and main variables that can cause evasion makes use of a method developed for this analysis, with data confronted with the literature, considering the main authors dealing with this topic. The tool chosen for the results analysis was the statistical correlation. Among the critical factors related to pedagogical management, it is possible to mention the adaptation to distance education, and support and feedback as fundamental questions to reduce evasion.

Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: A Study on the Beliefs of Trainee Teachers in Spain and Latin America.

.Objective: The main aim of this study is to analyse the acceptance of distorted beliefs about gender roles and violence against women in a sample of future teachers from Spain and Latin America. Method: The methodology used has been quantitative, and the design is cross-sectional. The sampling was intentional and not probabilistic. The sample is composed of 2395 trainee teachers who studied at universities and higher education centers from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Spain, and Mexico. Information was collected through a structured questionnaire that included the Inventory of Distorted Thoughts about Women and the Use of Violence-Revised (Echeburúa et al., 2016). The analysis used (chi-square, Student T, and ANOVA) made it possible to evaluate the influence of sex and country. Results: The results show statistically significant differences among countries in the acceptance of distorted beliefs. Men, compared to women, tend to present more cognitive distortions about gender roles and intimate partner violence against women. Conclusion: The education system is one of the main socialising agents, so teacher training in equality is essential to eliminate gender biases and contribute to the promotion of a society free of violence against women.

Comparison of the effect of training academic honesty using two workshop and virtual training methods on the knowledge and attitude of M. S. students.

BACKGROUND:Nowadays, one of the most important challenges of the universities and higher education centers is academic dishonesty among students. Academic dishonesty is done through cheating, deception, and plagiarism, which creates serious educational, studious, and social problems for the students and society. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of virtual and workshop training on the knowledge and attitude of M. S. students in terms of plagiarism.MATERIALS AND METHODS:This research was an applied interventional study of quasi-experimental type having pretest and posttest and the participants of this study included 90 M. S. nursing students of Medical Science University of Shiraz in the southwestern part of Iran.RESULTS:The comparison of the three groups indicated that virtual and workshop training, both, developed the knowledge and attitude of students regarding plagiarism; however, the comparison between two methods did not indicate a statistically significant difference.CONCLUSION:Both virtual and workshop training methods had an effect on increasing students’ knowledge and attitude. Regarding the positive effect of training academic dishonesty using two workshop and virtual training methods, both can be used as efficient and effective methods in training dimensions depending on the condition and facilities to prevent and reduce plagiarism in students.

The language centre as a laboratory for innovation

Abstract This paper discusses the potential of language centres in higher education as laboratories for innovation. Despite their hybrid character as central service providers that are also defined by their teaching, their positioning at the academic periphery, and the lack of a mandate to do academic research, language centres still have an obligation to conduct research as a means of promoting innovation. The design-based research (DBR) approach in learning and teaching, in which teaching stakeholders examine learning processes in real situation, offers a suitable opportunity for language centres to overcome the restrictions placed upon them. DBR can be done using existing resources and the innovation potential of a language centre’s teaching staff. The leadership and management of the language centre must be made responsible for providing and/or enabling the necessary structural, material, and cultural conditions for such research. This paper discusses the DBR approach at language centres in higher education and its impact on leadership. It then gives two examples of the successful implementation of DBR at the Language Center of UZH and ETH Zurich.

Does class still matter? Conversations about power, privilege and persistent inequalities in higher education

This Special Issue of Discourse emerged from the 10th Anniversary Seminar of the Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER): Does Class Still Matter? Conversations about Power, Privile...

Higher Education Centers and College Towns: A Typology of the US Metropolitan Geography of Higher Education

Colleges and universities are vital institutions at the heart of many US cities. Yet existing research offers only partial insights into the US metropolitan geography of HEIs. We use institutional and metro-level data to offer a novel perspective on the geography of single- and multi-HEI metropolitan compositions. Using Latent Profile Analysis, we develop a typology of Higher Education Metros (HEMs), identifying two main classes: Higher Education Centers and College Towns, with finer delineations based on the type and intensity of HEIs. We then assess macro- and micro-level patterns in the HEM types across US metro areas, and examine meso-level representative cases. Our study provides a framework for understanding the metropolitan geography of HEI configurations, serving as a complement to emergent literature examining the relational geography of HEIs. It enables a wider, systematic perspective that generates new insights about the spatial nature of higher education in the US.

The impact of the Apostolic constitution ‘Veritatis gaudium’ on the concept of Quality in ecclesiastical higher education Institutions

The paper analyzes the impact on the concept of Quality attributable to the innovations introduced by the Apostolic constitution Veritatis gaudium. The document offers not only operational indications but outlines the objectives that the academic community is invited to take up.Three distinct levels of challenges are highlighted: the role of academic institutions and the need to innovate learning systems; the relationship between higher education centres and the whole society; interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity as levers to support knowledge. The article concludes with an invitation to reflect on how to initiate the profound reform process to which higher education institutions are called by Veritatis Gaudium.

The Emotional Divergent-Convergent Thinking Program (EDICOP): Design, Implementation, and Results.

In a social environment that requires young people to adapt to increasingly demanding situations, emotional education and creativity training may be key for both personal development and academic performance. Given that there are currently no known interventions that develop emotional and creative skills simultaneously in a youth population, the main objective of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate the Emotional Divergent–Convergent Thinking Program (EDICOP). The study design was quasi-experimental with a non-equivalent control group and pretest–posttest measures. The participants included 196 students between 16 and 24 years of age belonging to two centers of higher education. Our results showed that the EDICOP contributed to the improvement of the participants’ divergent-proactive style, positive affectivity, emotional predisposition, and attention, as well as to their preference for cognition. Overall, the EDICOP is, therefore, both relevant and useful, and further research on the mood–creativity link is merited to generate new contexts in higher education for the promotion of both the emotional and creativity dispositions and self-awareness, by combining three basic psychological processes (emotion, cognition, and motivation).

Educación on line en tiempos de COVID-19: percepción en estudiantes de la Universidad Católica de Cuenca (Ecuador)

The Covid-19 pandemic in the early months of 2020 has generated a new scenario of global uncertainty. One of the first measures dictated was social confinement and the suspension of all mass gatherings, including face-to-face activity in educational centres and their migration to online education. In this context, the governing bodies of the Catholic University of Cuenca also established, in a complementary manner, a series of guidelines for the implementation of a modular system. So that this work, framed in a descriptive quantitative methodology through the development and application of a questionnaire, articulated in four modules (general characterization of the population under study; family characterization of students; assessment on their current online educational-training context; and appreciation of the general experience lived during their process of confinement) tries to approach the perception that students of the Faculty of Education, Arts and Humanities at the headquarters of the Catholic University in Cuenca and its sites in Azogues, Canar and Macas, in relation to both online education and the modular system implemented in that higher education centre. Among the results obtained, the following stand out, among others: the existence of a gap in access, use and competence with respect to technological devices, the perception that Online Education and its evaluation system is more demanding than the face-to-face system, the conviction of a radical change in teaching methods, for which they were not prepared both in the use of platforms and in knowledge of digital pedagogy, a positive evaluation in the face of the implementation of the modular system, despite the fact that it entails greater dedication to study and work, although a preferential positioning between the modular system and the semester system has not yet been defined.

Wikipedia y universidades: trabajo colaborativo en torno a universidades iberoamericanas

This paper presents the conclusions of an investigation into the Wikipedia entries of the twenty-five most relevant Ibero-American universities. The ranking of higher education institutions is based on the Shanghai, URAP and other barometers. In each of the entries of the universities studied in the online encyclopedia, all the existing language versions have been revised. The three most relevant language versions (75 articles in total) have been reviewed in depth. The 500 most active editors on these higher education texts have also been monitored. The main objective of the research is to check whether there is an open community and activity that reflects on higher education centers in the Ibero- American sphere. And if this construction implies a full discourse of open authority (Open Authority), as established by Lori Byrd Phillips (2013). In other words, if a rigorous and impartial narration of the universities is created. Our results show an enormous and broad activity. All Ibero-American universities have Wikipedia entries in more than a dozen languages. And the widest articles exceed more than a thousand contributions. The monitoring of this activity reveals how the editors and monitors have favored the creation of a space for knowledge and exchange about universities in the environment of the Portuguese and Spanish languages. This paper concludes that there is an open authority on higher education spaces in Ibero-America in the online encyclopedia. The entries on the twentyfive universities studied and the 500 editors monitored revealed that there is a rigorous and wide -although uneven- activity on the universities in Wikipedia.

La Macdonalización del Sistema Universitario

Enrique Díez comienza, en su libro Neoliberalismo Educativo (2018), narrando una mañana a primera hora en la universidad y como se ha iniciado una invasión de mupis publicitarios, casi todos relacionados con las empresas y los bancos. No se trata solo de una invasión de espacios públicos, sino de espacios del conocimiento y del trabajo, de una pedagogía neoliberal gestionando las instituciones del conocimiento al estilo de las franquicias de McDonald´s. Por eso, en este estudio hemos querido ahondar en las consecuencias de este modelo para el profesorado contratado laboral especialmente en los centros de educación superior y más específicamente en la Universidad de la Laguna en las Islas Canarias. Situaremos a esta universidad desde sus descriptores de producción y los relacionaremos con los de sobre carga de trabajo y condiciones laborales de precariedad del PDI laboral. El objetivo es tipificar o identificar esos indicadores de vulnerabilidad y precariedad, concentrados en figuras contractuales determinadas. Veremos cómo en la actualidad están empezando a desarrollarse experiencias de resistencia y lucha ante un modelo que promueve el logro individual, la elitización de las plantillas y las desiguales condiciones de trabajo. Ésta situación está empezando a movilizarse a pesar de las muchas barreras, derivadas de las fuerzas micropolíticas hegemónicas ostentadas por algunos grupos de funcionarios. Intentaremos explicitar algunas de las claves para una posible regeneración de las culturas de lucha por el derecho laboral.

Frecuencia fenotípica de grupos sanguíneos ABO y Factor Rh (D) en estudiantes del centro de educación superior técnico de la Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (CESTUNT)

Frecuencia fenotípica de grupos sanguíneos ABO y Factor Rh (D) en estudiantes del centro de educación superior técnico de la Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (CESTUNT)

Development and validation of the shared governance feasibility instrument in nursing schools in Iran

To develop and validate a shared governance feasibility instrument in schools of nursing in Iran with respect to the nature of the profession and the sociocultural context of the Iranian community.BackgroundNursing schools are liable to the application of shared governance due to the presence of various expert educational groups within the school that necessitates reciprocal cooperation. Since the concept of shared governance is culture-based and given that no full-fledged study has been conducted on shared governance in Iran, the development of a suitable shared governance feasibility instrument is rendered as mandatory.MethodsThis sequential exploratory mixed-method study consisted of two qualitative and quantitative parts was accomplished 2016–2019. First, the primary items were extracted through an extensive review of the literature, qualitative interviews and underwent psychometric validation using a methodological approach. Face, content, construct validity and reliability of the instrument was established and completed.ResultsOne hundred fifty items were distilled from the first stage of the study, was reduced to 70 after establishing face, content validity and primary reliability. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in 52 items covering the two factors “shared atmosphere and culture” and “infrastructural prerequisites”. These two factors accounted for 78.6% of the total variance of the questionnaire. In calculating the final reliability coefficient of the instrument, Cronbach’s alpha and Omega were 0.981 and 0.805, respectively. The results showed an ICC of 0.91 indicating high reliability of the developed instrument with a standard error of measurement (SEM) of 10.43. Finally, the items underwent weighting via scoring by considering item weights due to differences between the two methods.Conclusion“Shared governance feasibility instrument” can provide a new insight into organisational performance for all policy-makers and beneficiaries of higher education. This not only leads to the use of intelligence and capabilities of the beneficiaries, but also aids in faster movement toward achieving organisational goals.Implications for nursing managementThis study and the developed instrument may serve as a guide for the feasibility of implementing shared governance to assess management styles and performance in higher education centers.

PROCESOS ADMINISTRATIVOS Y FINANCIEROS PARA LA PROVISIÓN DE LOS FONDOS DE JUBILACIÓN PATRONAL DE LA UNIVERSIDAD LAICA ELOY ALFARO DE MANABÍ

La jubilación patronal es un derecho de los trabajadores y una obligación de los empleadores, se encuentra normalizada en el Código de Trabajo en los artículos 216, 217, 218 y 219. En este sentido, las empresas e instituciones públicas y privadas deben garantizar un adecuado proceso de provisión de los fondos de jubilación. La Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí es un centro de educación superior, que como institución de carácter público prioriza los derechos de sus trabajadores y por lo tanto, desde esta IES se gestionan adecuadamente los recursos de los trabajadores sin afectar la disponibilidad financiera y los procesos administrativos sujetos a las normativas legales vigentes. Por otra parte, los informantes que participaron en la investigación mencionan que conocen el caso de varios ex trabajadores de la ULEAM que se jubilaron en la institución y han recibido su jubilación patronal a partir de los fondos destinados para estos fines. Además, en la revisión documental se demuestra que la Ley para la justicia laboral incide en las finanzas de las instituciones de educación de tercer nivel, debido a que con la nueva fórmula, el valor aportado por el empleador es mayor y el tiempo de servicio del trabajador disminuye. Palabras clave: Administración, jubilación, seguridad social, finanzas, Ley.

Factores explicativos del abandono de los estudios en la educación superior en contextos socio-académicos desfavorables

La magnitud del fenomeno de abandono de los estudios en educacion superior es motivo de preocupacion en buena parte del mundo occidental, acrecentada porque, a pesar de la gran cantidad de dinero y recursos invertidos, las tasas de abandono se han mantenido practicamente inalteradas en los ultimos dos decenios. En atencion a ello, el objetivo de la investigacion de base del presente texto fue identificar y analizar los factores de mayor incidencia en el abandono de los estudios en los tres centros de educacion superior de Rivera (Uruguay), caracterizados por estar inscritos en contextos socio-academicos desfavorables. El metodo empleado, de corte eminentemente cualitativo, apelo a las tecnicas de encuesta (censal), entrevista en profundidad y grupo de discusion, tomando como unidades de analisis las cohortes 2014, es decir, tanto los estudiantes no persistentes al momento del trabajo empirico (2016) como los persistentes. El principal resultado de la investigacion fue la constatacion de que en contextos socio-academicos desfavorables, como es el caso de Rivera, el encadenamiento explicativo del abandono en educacion superior es sustantivamente distinto que el formulado para contextos favorables. En efecto, el bajo desempeno academico de los estudiantes, antesala del abandono de los estudios, se debe a que no estudian lo suficiente y esto se explica, principalmente, porque su motivacion hacia los estudios elegidos es escasa. Esta baja motivacion es producto, a su vez, de haber cursado una carrera que no es la que hubiesen elegido cursar, de haber tenido la posibilidad de ingresar en la de su preferencia, por no existir en la oferta disponible cerca de su lugar de residencia. La principal conclusion es que las condiciones estructurales de los contextos socio-academicos desfavorables, en especial la escasa y poco diversificada oferta de estudios terciarios, constituye un potente factor explicativo del abandono de los estudios en educacion superior, sobre todo en el primer ano.

The Problem of Emigration and Deportation in the Fate of Academician Community of the Kamianets-Podilskyi State Ukrainian University

The problem of further development of the national university structure in the context of the European integration processes of the Ukrainian educational system and its internal transformation significantly foregrounds research studios, in which the subject of retrospective approaches has being developed various aspects of the topic, including the fate of representatives of professorial teaching corporations and studentship in the event of defeat of national liberation struggles the beginning of the 20th century and the establish­ment of the Soviet form of statehood in Ukraine. This process has been analyzed on the example of the Kamianets-Podilskyi State Ukrainian University, which was founded on the eve of Hetman P. Skoropadskyi with the direct participation of representatives of government structures, local self-government and public institutions. The authors used the problem-chronological and historical-typological methods, which provided a distinction in the topic of research of certain problems. The change of political regimes in Ukraine has led to the use of the historical-comparative method, and the biographical has allowed to ascertain the activity of concrete activists in a fractious period of history. It was emphasized that at the end of 1920, the academician community of the Kamianets-Podilskyi State Ukrainian University faced the problem of further life choices. It has been noted that a part of the staff of the educational institution, based on the previous experience of Bolshevik governance in Podillia, has made a decision in favor of emigration. It has been proved that 18 members of the corporation sent abroad from among the professors, private associate professors and assistants, were headed by rector I. Ohiienko. Students were a separate group. The challenges of everyday life have been described in the conditions of emigration being, and attempts have been demonstrated to overcome them. I. Ohiienkoʼs active position in solving urgent questions concerning the assignment of members of the professorial corporation to European scientific centers has been shown with purpuse to complete the researches begun at home and their employment in educational institutions organized in the camps of the interned. Great efforts were also made by I. Ohiienko to help students continue their studies at European Higher Education Centers. Despite the unstable political and difficult financial situation, these tasks have been successfully implemented to a certain extent. With the rest of the projects and programs it looked less important. It has been demonstrated that the expectations of those representatives of the corporation that remained in Ukraine, in order to contribute to the development of the educational system in its national forms by its own work, in view of the general strategy of the Bolshevik Party to unify all spheres of social and political life, have not been justified. Some representatives of the corporation were included in the list of prominent figures of science and culture, which the Soviet authorities preferred to deport abroad at the end of 1922 – early 1923 has been shown. The precondition of this process has been proved by the fact that the communist education system was oriented to satisfy the needs of the state, Bolshevik model of socialism, but much less to improve social relations. As a result, political purges and permanent terror, including deportation, have become an inalienable and key method of «sovietization» of the intelligentsia in scientific and educational institutions.

Detecting Factors Effective in Knowledge Sharing Model Among Educational Staff

One of the effective organs in implementing economic, social and cultural development policies in each country is the Ministry of Education, which trains specialized and experienced manpower as the basis for the comprehensive development of countries, production of knowledge and research knowledge, and the provision of specialized services by universities and higher education centers. Accordingly, it facilitates sharing knowledge and identifying factors affecting it in the education organization, especially among employees who are the most important elements in any organization. Because it can create an atmosphere full of trust and interaction, the employees can share their knowledge and experiences with each other; hence, it can be an important strength for the education organization as well as society. In this regard, the present study aimed to identify the factors affecting the knowledge sharing model in individual, organizational, environmental, and extra-environmental dimensions among educational staff. The study revealed that the main individual dimension includes enjoyment of knowledge sharing, organizational commitment, specific organizational knowledge, trust, motivation, value of knowledge, and individual and group interactions. Organizational dimension also encompasses organizational culture, documentation development, in-house planning and organizational rewards. The environmental dimension includes technical knowledge, information technology context, knowledge memory upgrading, and economic and social factors. The trans-environmental dimension consists of political and legal factors and international interactions. This descriptive-analytical research used a library technique.

Challenges and opportunities of acquiring scientific authority in medical sciences: determination of the experts' views based on qualitative content analysis.

Introduction: Capability is built upon knowledge and wisdom, and scientific progress and development is associated with wealth production, national and international authority, and independence. To promote scientific development, as a prerequisite to the country’s progress in other areas, there is a need for strategic planning and creating scientific capacities. Today’s world is facing a rapid growth and development in science and technology, and universities and higher education centers have an important role in the society’s development and progress in the areas of human resources training, science and technology production, and solving different problems. Considering the Iran’s health scientific road map and communication of innovation and reform plans, and since universities are required to identify the areas of authority, this study was conducted to determine the challenges of scientific authority promotion and proper courses of actionMethods: In this study, content analysis was used as a qualitative research method. The triangulation method was applied for data collection. Purposive sampling was done to select the participants for focused group discussion and data collection continued until data saturation was achieved. The participants were 19 higher education experts and MOHME policymakers. The ATLAS.ti software version 5.2 was used for analysis of dataResults: The results of the analysis of transcripts obtained from FGD with higher education experts and MOHME policymakers showed 4 themes, 10 categories and 43 sub-categories. The resulting themes included: "Experienced perceptions of scientific authority", "Requirements of scientific authority", "Challenges of scientific authority", and "Strategies for promoting scientific authority"Conclusion: Universities and governmental sectors do not represent all the capacities, and there are much more capacities that can be exploited with participation of different sectors and institutions, especially inter-sectoral and inter-university collaborations. Many advances in new sciences have occurred in interdisciplinary majors, and these collaborations help to take solid steps towards scientific authority

Academic audit: Suggested methods to assess medical teachers performance

One of the tools available to measure the adequacy of academic input is the “Academic Audit.” The academic audit provides an opportunity for a regular strategic overview of a college’s teaching-learning process. It also delineates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and constraints for the assessment of medical teacher performance tools. Finally, it improves to choose the cost-effective methods of learning. Academic audits are a rare entity among medical colleges. These centers of higher education, though in the ambit of universities, have not rigorously been asked to demonstrate the quality of education imparted. In the few colleges where attempts are being made, the audit was unable to fulfill its objectives. Even now, medical colleges’ quality or excellence is measured by subjective measures. After taking stock of the academic audit situation in Andhra Pradesh, it is suggested that these audits can be extended to assess the performance of the teachers. The expected roles of a medical teacher, namely, medical care, teaching, research, human values, innovation and contribution towards society can be categorically assessed.

Adopting Augmented Reality to Engage Higher Education Students in a Museum University Collection: the Experience at Roma Tre University

University museums are powerful resource centres in higher education. In this context, the adoption of digital technologies can support personalised learning experience within the university museum. The aim of the present contribution is to present a case study carried out at the Department of Educational Sciences at Roma Tre University with a group of 14 master’s degree students. Students were involved in a 2-h workshop in which they were invited to test augmented reality technology through a web app for Android. At the end of the visit participants were required to fill in a questionnaire with both open-ended and closed-ended questions aimed at investigating their ideas on the exhibition and their critical thinking level. Students appreciated the exhibition, especially its multimodality. Most of the frequent themes identified in open-ended answers are related to critical and visual thinking. Despite the positive overall evaluation, there is still room for improvement, both in terms of technology and educational design.